Ok in order to clear the air, I have taken the liberty of posting a series of threads
where ideas on how to improve Lightwave can be posted in an organized fashion.
The idea is to provide an one stop place where developers (from Newtek, or independent)can come in and get ideas.

Here's one that won't fit into any of those threads: LightWave needs better and more thorough documentation.

Here's a few examples of things NOT covered in the docs, that throw folks off:

Edge Z-Scale -- set it to 1 if you're using a high Zoom lens, to keep Edges from popping out of the model altogether. In other situations, try lowering it slightly to pull Edges towards the camera, for cleaner lines. Folks who don't know anything about Edge Z-Scale often complain about Edges not looking nice, or falling apart, or whatever...when it's not the Edges' fault. They're only doing what they're told to do.

Bezier Handles in the Graph Editor and the ALT key -- you can hold down the ALT key to move each Bezier handle independently of its twin. This isn't covered in the HTML docs, and I'm not sure if the PDF file covers it, either. Two Maya guys recently complained to me that LightWave didn't have this feature, and as it turned out LightWave DOES -- it's just not documented.

Currently, you need to buy plugins to get the renderer to do advanced stuff like SSS and smoothe bump specularity etc... This should all be integrated and should be easy to use. Look at this new renderer in development by nextlimit.

Quote:What about something like "Paint Effects" in Maya... That would be awesome

Why not just use Maya?

But what would I add in lightwave?
Modeling - paint deform like in zbrush
UV setup - make the uv prjection editable. so you could "huge" the cylinder mapping more to the object and reduce editting time

Animation - would it be possible for lightwave to use the GPU vertex shader to accelerate defomation and dynamics?

Quote:there are many things that can be improved in LW, but it will be great if LW at last become 1 app.(not 2: layout + modeler). lot of users have problems with it.

Why? it's not distrupting producyivity. Even if you'r using a single app like maya or max most people somtimes do their modeling in silo or Modo and animate in motionbuilder or messiah and then bring it in to maya and max just for the rendering. And on the technical stand point. seperate app makes developing new tools more easyer.

Regarding the issue on 2 application (layout and modeler), I think it's not really a problem. Yes, some people may not like the way LW handles it (similar to how LW's UI is 'strange' and 'awkward'). I initially couldn't understand why LW needs to have 2 apps when 1 should be easier to use when I switched from program X to LW. However, as I start getting down to using it, I realized that 2 apps do have its advantages, and most importantly, it helps the work schedule instead of bogging it down, thus reducing the wasted time and effort in production. Now, I don't want to think of the day when LW integrates them into 1...

Bottomline is, try to understand how the 2 apps work and voila, you can see its beauty

The biggest problem I have with LW is not its functionality but rather its usefulness in the market. All of the software that I buy or browse to purchase that might utilize 3d models only take 3ds and Maya. Alot of software out there seems to cut out LW. If LW could do anything, it'd be to see to it that their extensions are included for import among the bigger name software. The reverse is also true. You need to be able to export to more file types used by more programs. Because if I need a model and turn to LW as a solution and it doesn't fill the need, Im forced to turn elsewhere.

It would be cool if you could use your mouse to grab a back drop image in moduler and move it to where you would like it to be insteed of playing with the numbers. If this is already a feture, please let me know how its done =D

One thing i would like to see improved is the way LW slows right down to a stand still when working on high poly models. Of course LW being seperated instead of integrated is great and i would definitely like it to stay that way something more needs to be done.

Light wave needs the ability to keyframe or animate every setting and every variable.
There are still setings in lightawave that are just set and that is how it is for the animation, but some of those settings would be cool if you could animate them or have them change over time.

__________________
Greg Medendorp

Some people say the glass is half empty, others say the glass is half full, but I think the glass is twice as tall as it should be.

In Layout As You Go Through The Motions Add Plugin Here, Displacement There I Find It Annoying That It All Comes From The Same Window. Now Don't Get Me Wrong Too Many Windows Is Bad, But If I Want Motion Window Up And Ik Controller Window Up At The Same Time Shouldn't I Be Able To. I Just Wish I Could Have That Option Whether I Want Pop-ups Or Not.

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